I got my EVGA gtx 460 1gb EE card like around 2 weeks ago, and I still got about 300 bucks or so to blow on PC upgrades.

I was thinking about stepping up to a 480 with EVGA's step up. It will supposedly cost me around 285 USD.
But word is that gtx460's in SLI just pwn a single 480.

Thing is, that I don't have an SLI ready board (Some Giga LGA 775 Crossfire board). And i'm just wondering if it's worth going through the PITA of trading off my board (which I do like due to its superior overclocking abilities compared to other EVGA branded LGA 775 boards). All just to save a few bucks and get a couple more FPS by going 460 SLI.

Or if I should go ahead and step up to a 480, despite the apparent poor temperature and noise levels.

Thanks in advance.

-s288

EDIT: My PSU is a TX750 Corsair, and I have fairly decent cooling (Antec 1200 with an extra 2 Yate Loons).
I am also considering a gtx 470.

Zero82z

August 16, 2010 03:45 PM

Don't do anything and keep your $300. Save up for an upgrade to the LGA1156 or LGA1366 platform, or wait for Sandy Bridge.

headsh0t

August 16, 2010 03:47 PM

Well it's up to you if you wanna swap your board out or not, cause ya 460's in SLI would be sweet. You could step up to a gtx470 and get a small SSD?

shayan288

August 16, 2010 03:54 PM

Thing is, I was expecting so much from my 460 (coming from a 260). Then when I received it, I started to realized how stupid I was being, and how the 460 was just an average card for today's GPU market. So what I was hoping for with this new upgrade I am planning for, is basically a good extra 5-10 FPS or so in games like Crysis, Bad company 2, and even the new upcoming Mafia 2 (which is seem to be getting an average of like 30 FPS in the demo, which isn't making me too happy). The thought of settling for a 470, and spending the rest of my funds on a sound card sounds like a possibility but I'm not too sure if I would see THAT much of a performance difference. Whaddaya think?

PS: and about the whole upgrade for socket 1156 and stuff. Not quite sure If I really NEED to upgrade CPU wise, because today's games are still barely fully utilizing 4 cores of a CPU (I currently have a q9550 OC'd to 4), let alone me spending money on some crazy 8 thread CPU. I kinda just wanted to stick with GPU upgrades, because thats where you see the biggest FPS differences.

headsh0t

August 16, 2010 04:00 PM

Well I went from a gtx260 to a 5850 and i think i gained at least an extra 20 fps average in BC2 so you should see similar results with the 470.

shayan288

August 16, 2010 04:13 PM

Alright cool. So uhh how big of a difference in FPS levels would I notice between the 470 and the 480 at 1920x1200, and are the rumours of the 480 being an oven true?

fishingfanatic

August 16, 2010 04:36 PM

Video Cards

I actually have a 5970 and a 480. Because the HAF X case was made to accommodate the 480, I added a fan to the supplied shroud. The 5970 was a bit too big for it. Go figure! It runs warmer than the 480.
Anyway, the 480 runs quite cool with the extra fan. Now I just happened to have a 90 cfm 16 db fan, so maybe it's a bit on the high cfm side. hehe.
I think you'll love the 480 if you decide to stay with the 775. I had a 9550 and it was a great cpu.
Enjoy your upgrade, whichever way you go!!!
:biggrin::thumb:

rjbarker

August 16, 2010 04:54 PM

Quote:

Don't do anything and keep your $300. Save up for an upgrade to the LGA1156 or LGA1366 platform, or wait for Sandy Bridge.

Completely agree.....I wouldn't bother dumping anymore coin into your current set-up.....1156/1366 should be your next upgrade...

shayan288

August 16, 2010 04:58 PM

Alright, but how exactly would a new i5 or i7 benefit me, when all I really do is surf the web, game, fold with gpu only, and occasional video editing and rendering?

Zero82z

August 16, 2010 05:19 PM

How much of a benefit do you really think you'll see from a GPU upgrade? I doubt it will be anything terribly significant. Anyway, my reasoning is this. I don't think a GTX 480 is a good GPU choice in general, and SLI with an LGA775 board requires you to use an nVidia chipset which is also not an ideal situation. That's why I don't think you should do either. If you want the ability to use SLI, I think you should upgrade to a newer Intel platform that will allow you to do it with an Intel chipset.